Love's Embers II: Love's Not An Illusion
by Tyrila Anios
Summary: [[ON HOLD UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE]] Returning after three years, Ember is back with a vengeance. Kai couldn't be happier, but something seems to be wrong with the way she is acting. What is she hiding from him, and why does it all seem so full of dejavu?
1. Prolouge: Test Of Time

AN: And here's the sequel to the very much loved (by the hundred or so reviews I got) Love's Embers! I really, really wanted to finish that one so we can now be on this one. This one's rating is for future chapters mainly.

Disclaimer: I don't own them, only own OCs and plot and story, and the prequel to this sequel. Duh.

Song: Let It Roll - Secondhand Serenade

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

**Prolouge - Test Of Time**

**D**rifts of air displaced the water in front of him as each ripple was forming differently according to the motion of the air. His grey-blue hair wafted in the light breeze, the currents playing with every individual strand. As some got into one great grey eye he lifted a gloved hand to replace it behind his ear and as he did so he sighed heavily. It had been so long since he had come to this place but the memories of that final night were the same as they had been for three whole years.

Much of the memory should have been erased by time, the thoughts and clarity crumbling to mere shadows of their former truth and glory. But still it hung on, in just as much purity as it had been the morning he woke up in the bus shelter. Memories that change your life usually have that effect, sticking out, being the only ones you can truly remember as if it were yesterday. And to him, the night when the woman he loved more than life itself left for someplace different, someplace new, was one of two memories. That one, and the night he had first kissed her. Smiling at the thought, the broody young adult sat on the park bench, thinking about the times they had shared as friends.

They had first met during the tournament. The day he had fought her, he thought it was the day he started living, breathing for life instead of just to get by it. Naturally at first he had rejected her ideas, having for so long been on his own with no-one who he could open up to and share secrets with. He hadn't been like other children. When his mother died, he had been outcasted from the Russian community without any explanation. However, although the adults knew his uncle was a madman, they did not tell their children the reason why they ignored the young boy. And subconciously they had taught their children to hate him.

Jeered at he had come to Japan from Russia a while after the incident, where he had lived on the streets as a young, prodigy blader for three years. A while later, he was accepted into a academy and his life basically flashed by. Classes went on as normal, and eventually he came to the Bladebreakers for the tournament. Years went by in what seemed like a flash, and finally he was at the small tourny where he had first met the woman of his dreams. The redhead they called Ember.

Her name suited her perfectly. Her hair was red as flames and would drift in the air when she let in down. Sometimes, if the sun was at just the right angle, he could almost make out a little halo around her head. Silly and lovestruck, he knew, but it seemed perfectly real to him at the moment. What he would give to see her again...

Ember had told him that she would come back some day to see him. _Some day..._every day after she had left he wished for 'some day' to be the very next day so he could see those beautiful eyes the colour of sapphire. His heart pummeled against his ribcage as he thought of her, closing his eyes and relishing the image of her beauty in his mind. There was no doubt about it - after all these years he was still in love with the same girl. No-one else came into his life because he knew she was the one for him, the only one who he could truly love now and forevermore. He hadn't pursued any relationships, which was saddening for all of those girls out there who would like to date him, but he put them down for the reason that one day she would be back.

_One day. _As for every day, he prayed it was today. But every time he looked out of his window, expecting to see a girl standing outside with long red hair that trailed to her waist, there was no sign of that comely soul that had turned his life around for the very better. Longing filled his veins every second of every day just to have her somewhere near him. They were two halves of a whole, part of something perfect. If only she could see that, and if only she were there!

When she came back he would tell her the secret he had kept hidden from her. He would tell her he loved her more than anything else in the world, wanted to have her by his side then and for all eternity. It would take a while to get his courage up, but he had been doing nothing else for the past three years apart from waiting for her to return to him after so long. Kai had spent three long years waiting.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Barely thirty minutes away, a girl with long hair the colour of fire came out of the airport terminal, blinking rapidly against the heavy light shining on her pale face. A short, denim layer skirt swayed gently in the breeze as she walked towards the taxi rank. She had come here for a number of reasons; and one of them was her promise. She had told Kai all those years ago that one day she would be back to see him again, and she had kept her word. She only hoped that he still remembered her...

Ember didn't know it, but every day of those three years away, Kai had longed for her return.

He'd got what he wanted.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

AN: Short, I know, but it's the best I can do. Can't really think of anything to put here, my creativeness has dried up FAR too much lately with the festive season...argghh.

**SNEAK PEEK**

_The blonde stayed on the sofa, looking across the orphanage lounge with disdain in her eyes. She couldn't see why after three years, Ember would pick now to come back...Rally was worried. Her thoughts jumbled about, thinking of the redhead, when all of a sudden an arm wrapped around her. She looked up into two, bright sapphire eyes, and realised who they belonged to. And when she did, it was all she could do not to scream._

AN: AH...tired. My whole mind is screaming that the festive season is too much on a writer...guess it's true. Lord oh lord I want to go to sleep. And it's only half past seven. In the evening. With that, I hope you enjoyed reading, please R&R all, and enjoy the start to a sequel!

Tyrila Anios xxx


	2. Chapter 1: Home Again

AN: Woot! The first real chapter is here and thank God. Today's my grandpa's birthday so I don't think I'll be able to do too much before I'm am physically forced into the car and chained to a chair to listen to my aunt go blahblahblah for now and evermore (or so it seems, but most likely it'll be three hours). No, I don't actually get chained. But they might as well. Anywho, thank you AnimeCrazy88 for your review. I'd like to see more people reviewing (and reading).

Disclaimer: HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO DO THIS BEFORE YOU PEOPLE GET IT?? Ah screw it. Don't own characters, but own OCs, plot, story and blah blah blah, blah blah.

Song: Handle This - Sum 41

-o-o-o-o-

**Chapter 1 - Home Again**

**S**unday dawned in Rally's flat slowly as usual. Her habit of leaving the blind only half open meant it took quite a while before the sun hit her face, shrined in long blonde hair. Her eyes fluttered open, to be blasted by the light powerfully. Grumbling and muttering something about 'why me, and why today?', she scrambled out of her bed, swinging her legs over towards the edge before setting her bare soles on the cold linoleum floor. Rally recoiled quickly - the floor was pretty cold, and with good reason, since the window had been left open a crack the night before.

Birds twittered and sung their morning songs with gusto whilst filling the air with harmonic sound. "How can they be so jolly? It's too early to be happy today..." she almost chuckled at her own joke as Rally slowly began her morning routine. She got up and began to make her way to the bathroom for a lovely cool shower. She couldn't figure out why other people liked hot showers - Trixie, for instance, had loved scalding hot showers because she said they cleansed her 'inside and out'. Whatever the hell that meant. _Everyone's entitled to their opinion. _Sighing she turned the shower from icy to cool, and stepped underneath the refreshingly bracing spray. Water trickled from her hair down her back and along the curves of her legs, finally coming into contact with the white porcelain shower bottom, covered in a plastic mat. The cool water stimulated her body and washed away the last sand grains of sleep from her eyes. Rally savoured every moment, knowing that each shower was a cool and calm embrace from the usual hectic hustle and bustle of everyday modern life in the city.

Getting out she wandered over to her room and the bed, where a small selection of clothes lay, strewn, just on the edge. She'd gone shopping the day before and had been experimenting with different clothing combinations. It had only been a matter of time before she had laid down in her underwear for a short nap, which in turn became a whole night's sleep. So often now she tried to avoid the encasement of dreams, knowing full well they could turn into nightmares. Which had been all too real not too long ago...

Rally shook the images out of her head. _No_, she told herself firmly, _Now is not the time to be missing Ember and the Bladebreakers, it is the time for moving on and finding my identity of self, a family..._she stopped dead in her tracks, her cream blouse halfway on and halfway off. Then once again, the tears came. They always did. Rally sat on the bed and sobbed, even convulsing motion her way of screaming to the world that for once she, Rally, was _not _okay. She was the one everyone came to when they had problems that needed solving or someone's shoulder to cry on. If only they could see their heroine now, sobbing like a three year old child that misses its mother. At the thought of her parents she cried even harder. Their memories were still faint, but they were there, haunting her like a predicit. At least when Ember had been here, she could share her pain.

Imagining her friend she smiled softly, the sobs slowly coming down to the occasional hiccup. She was probably living the life now, or at least trying not to miss them as much as Rally missed her. Ember was like a sister to her, someone to help through the hard times and someone to laugh with in the good times. Of course, the redhead was also the one completley oblivious to the fact she had a certian Bladebreaker hopelessly in love with her. Kai must have grown so much...and Damien...a small blush came to her cheeks at the thought. Damien was someone special, she had always had a weird feeling around him that everything might just be better than it was before. She'd come to accept that she had a small crush on the young blader (who must have been around nineteen by then) but now that he was gone Rally realised just how much Damien meant to her.

Her thoughts were interrupted with a knock on the door. "Coming!" she called out, quickly doing up the rest of the buttons on her blouse and slipping into a white miniskirt. Padding barefoot to the door she wondered who it could be at this time of day. It was hardly likely to be her landlord, and she had already paid up for the next three months, so what business was it of his to be doing there at seven thirty in the morning?

"Hello?" she asked, opening the door. No-one. Slightly freaked out she closed the door and walked a few paces away, before coming to a stop. Something was out of place. not quite right. There was something that hadn't been there a second ago that now was there, and for some reason she just knew that it was of utmost importance. Turning around her eyes fell onto the small bristly doormat she had lain there just a few months ago. On the mat was an envelope. Curious Rally opened it and found a tiny note, written on blue paper the colour of the cloudless sky outside. Reading the Japanese letters in front of her, her eyes widened when she saw the name at the bottom of the note.

_Trixie._

Rally hadn't heard from her in what seemed like forever. Ever since she had left a year ago there had been only her and Damien, and with his dissapearance six months earlier it had only been her left. She hadn't managed to get into contact with the Bladebreakers due to all the tours they kept having, and it was rumoured that they had not been in town for the past two years. But now Trixie was back, apparently, and wanting to meet her at the park in town she no longer felt alone. Her friend had come back. If only Ember would follow...

-o-o-o-o-

The blonde stayed on the sofa, looking across the orphanage lounge with disdain in her eyes. She couldn't see why after three years, Ember would pick now to come back...Rally was worried. Her thoughts jumbled about, thinking of the redhead, when all of a sudden an arm wrapped around her. She looked up into two, bright sapphire eyes, and realised who they belonged to. And when she did, it was all she could do not to scream. "It...it is true...what Trixie said..." Tears welled up in the eyes of the blonde as she wrapped her arms around Ember and cried into her shoulder. Everything that she had not been able to share with her sister came out in that wave of tears, spilling like water from a cracked jug - first slowly, then flowing relentlessly.

Trixie joined in, everyone crying that their reunion was here at last. The Team Dragoness girls were back.

-o-o-o-o-

AN: ARGH! Hasn't been an update in FOREVER! I want to scream. I wanted to update all of this time but never had the time or the pure power to do so. Plus my computer is screwing up more often than it usually does. Which is a lot to start off with anyway.

**Sneak Peek**

_Kai didn't know what to do. He had put his life on hold for her when she so obviously wasn't coming back. He had tried to reach her so many times and failed miserabley. If only he could hold her in his arms right then, he would kiss her face off and tell her that he loved her too much to ever let her out of his sight ever again. He didn't know that the oppurtunity for so was right behind the corner, or should we say, behind the door..._

AN: Thank God I finished this. It's not really a chapter. More of a whole 'connection with later plot' kinda thing. Damn I hate the early chapters of my fanfics...they always start so crap then end up getting not quite as crappy near the ending when I wanna continue them on. Grr...ah well. R&R, me wants to see some LOVIN'! Of the reveiwing kind.

Tyrila Anios xxx


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